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To: pgerassi who wrote (78059)	4/23/2002 2:44:22 PM
From: tcmay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

"Your bench analogy is ok except for the fact that if the metal plate was a lead plate 3" thick and the bench was a solid block of copper, the man would be warmer on the lead plate than he would be directly on the bench." To refute an assertion (in this case, Mani's assertion) it is enough to find a single counterexample. In this case, a rather wide and often-used sheaf of counterexamples. That you can find a contrived situation which supports Mani's assertion is not interesting. Heat spreaders are used precisely as I described, to either increase overall contact area or to conduct heat to a place where it can be removed. "Why would a HIS made out of a material be any better than a heat sink with a base plate made of that very same metal?" Check the designs. There may be a variety of reasons the back of the die is not in direct contact with the heat sink...mechanica, for example. I was refuting the point that adding a heat spreader increases thermal resistance in the circuit...I showed directly that there are natural situations where the increased contact area _reduces_ thermal resistance. Note of course that heat spreaders are almost always made of high thermal conductivity material, not at all the "lead is worse than copper" contrivance you cite above. --Tim May